Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/185

of the masculine, the vowel of the ending is prolonged to आ ā; in the weakest cases it is in general struck out altogether; in the middle cases, or before a case-ending beginning with a consonant, the final न् n is dropped. The न् n is also lost in the nom. sing. of both genders (leaving आ ā as final in the masculine, अ a in the neuter).

a. The peculiar cases of the neuter follow the usual analogy (311 b): the nom.-acc.-voc. pl. have the lengthening to आ ā, as strong cases; the nom.-acc.-voc. du., as weakest cases, have the loss of अ a — but this only optionally, not necessarily.

b. In the loc. sing., also, the a may be either rejected or retained (compare the corresponding usage with ṛ-stems: 373). And after the m or v of man or van, when these are preceded by another consonant, the a is always retained, to avoid a too great accumulation of consonants.

422. The vocative sing. is in masculines the pure stem; in neuters, either this or like the nominative. The rest of the inflection requires no description.

423. As to accent, it needs only to be remarked that when, in the weakest cases, an acute á of the suffix is lost, the tone is thrown forward upon the ending.